PBS Hawai‘i

He’s the first Neighbor Islander to head the Board of Directors of statewide PBS Hawaiʻi; he is by far our youngest Board Chair; and he’s the fifth generation of a successful family company, founded by an immigrant.

Meet Jason Fujimoto of Hilo, 36, husband of Tobie and father of two children. This summer, he succeeded longtime PBS Hawai‘i Board Chair Robbie Alm.

In Jason’s “day job,” he serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of HPM Building Supply, overseeing company business on Hawai‘i Island, Maui and Kauaʻi. His role with nonprofit PBS Hawai‘i is unpaid, and he knows what he’s getting into, as he is our Board’s former Vice Chair.

“When you look at the opportunity we have here as an organization, and it goes beyond media, it’s… bringing people of all cultures and professions together and really looking toward the future and solving some of the key issues and problems that we have as a state,” he said.

Jason will tell you that he spent his childhood in Hilo, but that he really grew up on Sesame Street. Public television was on the screen in his family home. His parents, Mike and Thuy Fujimoto, and grandparents Robert and Alice Fujimoto, highly value education. They did everything they could to help Jason deepen his knowledge and broaden his horizons.

The horizons he chose included the renowned Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After earning a degree in corporate finance and strategic management, Jason became an investment banker in New York City, working on mergers and acquisitions for J.P. Morgan.

Jason had grown wings but he hadn’t forgotten his roots. In 2004, he was ready to return to Hawai‘i, for the chance to do work that was more entrepreneurial and more fulfilling than what Wall Street offered. He found it at his family’s employee-owned company. HPM Building Supply may be best known for its “package home” program, which makes homeownership more affordable.

In 2013, Hawaii Business Magazine named Jason Fujimoto as a business person to watch over the years, one of the “20 for the Next 20.”

Earlier this year, Jason led our Board and Staff and other stakeholders in envisioning new strategic goals for PBS Hawai‘i. Everyone felt free to speak and share their different ideas. There was civility and humor and, later, a clear consensus. We’re making our video content more accessible, more quickly, in different forms, on different media platforms; and we’re
taking new steps to address financial sustainability in changing times.

As CEO, I look forward to working closely with Jason. He places a high value on lifelong learning and integrity, has that old-time Hilo knack for building relationships, and leads from the heart.

HONOLULU – Mariko Miho has been named PBS Hawaiʻi’s new Vice President of Advancement. In this key fundraising position, she is responsible for building a blended-gifts program and coordinating a multimedia giving campaign for the statewide public television station.

Pictured: Mariko Miho is PBS Hawai‘i’s new Vice President of Advancement.

For more than 20 years, Miho served the University of Hawai‘i Foundation as a senior-level development officer, matching donors’ interests with the greatest needs of the University of Hawai‘i. She also worked with the UH Community Colleges on statewide issues. Prior to her tenure with UH, Mariko worked in marketing communications and nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in California and Hawaiʻi.

“I am thrilled to join PBS Hawai‘i,” Miho stated. “This is a unique opportunity to join a media organization with a mission to serve the community through learning and discovery.”

Born and raised in Honolulu, Mariko is a graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.

PBS Hawai‘i is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization and Hawai‘i’s sole member of the trusted Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). We advance learning and discovery through storytelling that profoundly touches people’s lives. We bring the world to Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i to the world. pbshawaii.org | facebook.com/pbshawaii | @pbshawaii

Here is PBS Hawaiʻi’s open-concept new home, designed for collaboration, transparency and flexibility.

In May of 2016, we moved into the two-story building at the corner of Nimitz Highway and Sand Island Access Road in Honolulu. It functions beautifully as a place to create, acquire and distribute stories that matter to the islands that we serve.

Interior square footage is 30,000 square feet, which includes a large television/multimedia studio and a smaller second studio which doubles as PBS Hawaiʻi’s Board Room. There also is ample, cheerful space in which to hold events and meet with community members.

We are ever grateful to the people of Hawaiʻi and others who provided this place where people and ideas come together.

HONOLULU, HI – PBS Hawai‘i has hired Cheryl Oncea as its new Vice President of Advancement. Oncea will head fundraising initiatives at PBS Hawai‘i, a non-profit media organization and Hawai‘i’s only statewide public television station.

PBS Hawai‘i President and CEO Leslie Wilcox said, “Cheryl is very skilled and creative in generating revenue support for media enterprises. We’re her first nonprofit, but she knows us well, as an avid viewer and industry colleague.”

“I am thrilled that my career path has led me to this opportunity to join PBS Hawai‘i,” Oncea stated. “It is a rare chance to work at a locally owned television station with the specific mission of serving our community and advancing learning and discovery.”

PBS Hawai‘i is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and Hawai‘i’s sole member of the trusted Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). We advance learning and discovery through storytelling that profoundly touches people’s lives. We bring the world to Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i to the world. PBSHawaii.org | facebook.com/pbshawaii | @pbshawaii

HONOLULU, HI – PBS Hawai‘i has hired Jason Suapaia, a longtime creative professional and executive in Hawaii, as its new Vice President of Creative Services.

Suapaia will lead a team of creatives in producing local programs and multimedia content that capture Hawai‘i’s unique stories, music, culture and public affairs.

Suapaia, who is leaving his position as President and Executive Producer at Hawai‘i-based creative media agency, 1013 Integrated, said he has enjoyed his commercial career and looks forward to applying his skills at a beloved nonprofit institution.

“I’m looking forward to creating content that the people of Hawai‘i find enlightening and meaningful,” he said.

“Jason is well-regarded as a team builder and creative problem solver, and he’ll be putting his considerable skills to use in developing and producing quality local programming,” said Leslie Wilcox, PBS Hawai‘i President and CEO.

Suapaia is an alumnus of the Pacific Century Fellows, Board President of the Film and Video Association of Hawai‘i, co-founder of ‘Ohina The Short Film Showcase, and in 2011 was named as a young business stand-out (Forty Under 40) by Pacific Business News.

PBS Hawai‘i is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and Hawai‘i’s sole member of the trusted Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). We advance learning and discovery through storytelling that profoundly touches people’s lives. We bring the world to Hawai‘i and Hawai‘i to the world. PBSHawaii.org | facebook.com/pbshawaii | @pbshawaii

HONOLULU, HI – PBS Hawaii welcomes back longtime television and multimedia marketing executive Linda Brock as its first-ever Chief Content Officer. In this newly created role, Brock will lead development of an integrated content strategy, in order to deliver programming in multiple ways to better serve the public.

“Linda is a strategic thinker and game changer who researches how people want to consume media,” said Leslie Wilcox, PBS Hawaii President and CEO.

“She rejoins us as we move to a new building and look forward to offering more collaborations in storytelling, more robust local content, and more interactivity,” Wilcox said.

Brock has worked at Honolulu commercial television stations and in the telecommunications industry in Asia. As PBS Hawaii’s previous Vice President of Programming and Communications, Brock was involved in discussions that gave birth to HIKI NŌ, Hawaii’s statewide student news network.

PBS Hawaii is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and Hawaii’s sole member of the trusted Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). We advance learning and discovery through storytelling that profoundly touches people’s lives. We bring the world to Hawaii and Hawaii to the world. PBSHawaii.org | facebook.com/pbshawaii | @pbshawaii

HIKI NŌ (which is the Hawaiian phrase for “Can Do”) is a PBS Hawai‘i Learning Initiative that mentors middle and high schoolers from public, charter, and private schools throughout the state of Hawai‘i as they create PBS-quality video stories about themselves and their communities. Stories that meet PBS standards are compiled into a weekly half-hour program that airs statewide on PBS Hawai‘i and worldwide on pbshawaii.org

Through the rigorous, trial-and-error process of creating a story that meets PBS standards, students learn the following survival skills for the 21st century: critical thinking and problem-solving; collaboration across networks and leading by influence; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analyzing information; curiosity and imagination.

The completed HIKI NŌ stories show only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to revealing the students’ overall learning experience. To help illuminate the process, PBS Hawai‘i has produced short, “What I Learned” mini-docs about what students experienced during the production of selected HIKI NŌ stories. To view these “What I Learned” mini-docs and their corresponding HIKI NŌ stories, click on the school names below.

HONOLULU, HI – PBS Hawaii has received a $50,000 grant from Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. for the public television station’s NEW HOME at the entrance to Sand Island.

The grant brings the sum that PBS Hawaii has raised for its new facility to over $24.2 million. The fundraising goal is $30 million.

PBS Hawaii’s construction of The Clarence T.C. Ching Campus began in November 2014, with completion in spring 2016. The existing one-level structure at a corner of Nimitz Highway and Sand Island Access Road is being recycled and expanded into a two-story building, for a total of 30,000 square feet under roof.

At the heart of PBS Hawaii’s NEW HOME will be a large television studio for local productions and a “Learning Zone” for students, teachers and mentors in the station’s statewide student news network and digital learning initiative, HIKI NŌ.

“Alexander & Baldwin is pleased to continue our long-standing support of PBS Hawaii. PBS has been an integral part of our community for many years, bringing important educational programming to keiki and kupuna alike, across our state,” said Meredith Ching, Senior Vice President of Government and Community Relations and Chair of A&B’s Kokua Giving program. “Successful organizations are those that are able to evolve and adapt to changing times, and we are confident that PBS Hawaii’s new facility will provide it with the foundation to meet the needs of the future. We are proud to be a part of PBS Hawaii’s NEW HOME.”

Leslie Wilcox, President and CEO of PBS Hawaii, said, “We’re most thankful for this substantial contribution from a leading company that continues to shape Hawaii.”

For more information on PBS Hawaii’s NEW HOME, naming opportunities or to contribute toward the project’s completion, visit PBSHawaii.org/newhome.

INSIGHTS ON PBS HAWAI‘I is Hawai‘i’s only live, weekly, interactive public affairs show. Your questions and comments are welcome via phone, email, Twitter or live blogging. You may also email your questions ahead of time to insights@pbshawaii.org.